I seem to be in a bit of a bedlam where my priorities are concerned. I’m realizing that it would take far far too long to implement everything in the game I wanted, so I’m trimming things back a bit. Even using just a few select features, I was surprised how many ideas I could come up with.
I’ve been experimenting with new combat by modifying the combat of the old game and to my amazement I learned a rather sad truth. Tale of the Night really was a button masher, a term I really really despise! Of course I knew it was true to some degree but I didn’t realize how bad things were.
To test it, I changed around my AI to just run at me attacking. I picked the fastest attacker (Karina) as my spammer. Using this bread dead strategy the computer managed to defeat me numerous times regardless of which character I used. The only effective strategy really (without playing dirty) was walking backwards while blocking and then using a heavy attack when there was enough distance. Now I’m not the greatest player in the world, probably not even at a game I made, but I shouldn’t have to struggle with such primitive tactics.
Sigh, I’m so mad at myself for not seeing the depth to this. You take a beat em’ up you like, and try to work it into your own without even thinking about the base issues. Luckily the internet has no problem shoving it your face…… eh luckily right?
There may be some people out there okay with the idea of being a button masher. Heck, I enjoy a good button masher! However, the core of my system must be based on the player actually knowing what he or she is doing. I can’t put my finger on why, but random attacking doesn’t exactly mesh well with the theme I’m going for.
Sometimes I think I’m trying to make the player smarter ; D
Although World of Whimsy is 1-player, rest assured I will be paying an ample amount of attention to making the enemies spam proof.
Well, Skyward Sword comes out in about 3 days which means the juggernaut portion of the big fall releases will be ending soon. Still, I want to wait until next year to make any major reveals.Trying to sticking out during this holiday season doesn’t seem like the smartest move.
Despite being devoid of news, I’m seriously considering a short comic series on deviant art. I’ve probably mentioned doing this a dozen times but never really got into it seriously ’til now. The idea is kinda stuck in my head.t’d be a pretty good setup to a debut trailer next year.
The only problem is how time consuming comics are. Even that one tiny comic strip I did took longer than I would’ve liked. I suppose I’ll find a way to streamline it. I usually do. Nothing ventured nothing gained right?
Should I start something, you could probably expect the first entry sometime in early. December.
It’s funny when you think about it. Today is just a normal day but it’s probably the last time in most people’s lives that a day can be filled with the same number this many times. I mean sure, you’ve got 2-22-22 but you lose a digit in the process. Honestly I doubt anyone cares, but today just seems it seems like one of those days to make something out of.
Of course, I failed to deliver making something out of it because I didn’t prepare soon enough, but that doesn’t mean I’m content-less. : D
I drew some concept art a while back. I don’t remember the exact reason why but I’m pretty sure it was to get an idea of how the game would look across various scenes.
My example scene, for some reason, was Turk’s hideout. On a side note, World of Whimsy has absolutely nothing to do with Turk, I guess it just seemed like a good test scene.
I think looking at the picture shows the various styles of gameplay the series incorporates, and that’s something I’m trying to implement in World of Whimsy at varied levels. One thing you may notice is the rail jump. That idea was put off into the Lithodora box. It’ll be much more useful in that game.
Well that’s the update for today. A few ideas crossed my mind for today’s update, like finishing the final Felix model, or going a bit deeper into that Jung typology I’m always talking about for a few more characters, or starting a series of web comics that wraps up Tale of the Night (seeing as I have no intention of doing it in game).
Ah well, maybe another day.
I seem to have some need to update on interesting dates. I have no idea why. Naturally I’ll probably update the 11th also. Perhaps I suffer from a bit of Calendar Man syndrome.
There’s the adage of “Show, don’t tell” when it comes to describing a game, but because I haven’t been focused on graphics (and the game storm of course), I think I’ll just tell.
Right now the game feels much like its predecessor in terms of movement which was actually pretty hard to do with the physics I’m using. There’s much more control over the jumping this time around (think Mega Man) giving a very fast pace feel to running and jumping.
Combat system still isn’t done. I scared to death even starting it because I have a feeling it’s going to murder me. I’ll likely be starting it very soon though.
Quite honestly it probably wouldn’t seem like much has changed since last time. But the game finally feels whole at this point. Much of this year has been fixing bugs and making tools easier to use. All I have to do is start adding on things. I’d say that’s a quick process but I don’t even trust myself with things like that at this point.
Now that the foundation is in place and I don’t have to worry about tweaking or refining the basics, things should get very interesting very fast… in theory anyway.
I may return to a more normal update routine in December. That said, there’s going to be a Felix drought for while.
While there won’t be any development news, there’s plenty of my rambling to go around.Today I’d like to ramble about one of the goals of my next game, attention to story.
Wow, news is getting slower and slower isn’t it? Considering the plethora of games on the verge, laying low a while may not be a bad idea. Still, I feel it is important not to go too long without anything so I guess I’ll ramble about something on my head.
One of the things I wonder is why this project took so long! I started this back in about February of 2010 and here it is, almost 2 years later and I’m still working on it. I used to be able to finish games in around 2 or 3 months. Ahh what perfectionism will do to you. I remember making this project because the original project would’ve taken too long. HA, yeah this one is just zooming by right?
Typically when I encounter errors within my program, it snowballs into me redoing a large portion of the program. Well whenever that happens, I usually get something cool out of it that I couldn’t do before.
Mr Sticks
Well this time I got stackable boxes, lots o’ boxes. I could do boxes like this in the old program but it was so wonky I could barely stack 3 up. I had no intention of really using this feature it’s really just a bonus as development progresses. The collision really just works better as a whole from the ordeal.
Also, I took issue with the way my textures were being colored, which lead to me reinventing the way I colored textures. I’ve created a method where I can create ANY texture and change it to any color without the texture looking fake. It works PERFECTLY, I’m honestly wondering if other people have thought of how to do it. Anyone that has tried to change the color of a brunettes hair to blonde or black in photoshop and have it look real, probably gets why I’m so happy about it. I’m not even sure if anyone has else done this before.
Lastly I’ve been working on my finalized Felix model, which is why I’ve been avoiding showing him in any pictures. I simply don’t think the model matches the art all that well. The model was created during the transition from the terrible Felix model in Tale of the Night so I guess it’s natural for it to miss some of the refinements I’ve made.
I’ve really been busy! All together, it was a great month.
This is really just a post to be posting. : )
It’s almost like knowing I can’t release the game this year lifted a weight off my shoulders. I’ll be honest, I wasted a lot of time working on things that weren’t essential to the project and that completely threw the project off focus and it took me a long time to get my head straight. This week however has been a return to form and I haven’t felt this productive in a long long time. Being forced into a delay rather than perpetually doing it myself turned out to be a good thing.
While the delay did give me a much needed push, that wasn’t the crux of this turnabout. It was all in my mindset. The entire time I’ve been switching between 3 roles. The slacker artist , the calculating programmer, and the strategical planner, each role veering off on its own course leading me to forget where I started. The trick was giving attention to each role more frequently, and not giving too much power to any other role. Ahh, it’s good to feel whole again!
So what does this mean for the site? Why nothing of course! I don’t plan on shifting any focus to the website anytime soon, but, this new balance I have does make me feel as though I could do a bit more. I’ll leave the idea of starting some promotional campaign up in the air.
Here it is September and the game isn’t ready yet which is not something I was hoping for. This month marks the beginning of a barrage of major release which doesn’t end til’ about December. It’d likely be suicide to release anything during that period with all the buzz going about. I’m going to look at the situation carefully to determine a release date.